Second World War The Special Air Service was a unit of the
British Army during the Second World War that was formed in July 1941 by
David Stirling and originally called "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigadethe "L" designation and Air Service name being a tie-in to a British disinformation campaign, trying to deceive the Axis into thinking there was a paratrooper regiment with numerous units operating in the area (the real SAS would "prove" to the Axis that the fake one existed). It was conceived as a
commando force to operate behind enemy lines in the
North African Campaign and initially consisted of five officers and 60
other ranks. Its first mission, in November 1941, was a parachute drop in support of the
Operation Crusader offensive, codenamed Operation Squatter. Due to German resistance and adverse weather conditions, the mission was a disaster, with only 22 men, a third of the unit, making it back to base. The rest were either killed or captured. Its second mission was a major success. Transported by the
Long Range Desert Group, it attacked three airfields in
Libya, destroying 60 aircraft without loss. In September 1942, it was renamed 1st SAS, consisting at that time of four British squadrons,
one Free French,
one Greek, and the
Folboat Section. In January 1943, Colonel David Stirling was captured in
Tunisia and
Paddy Mayne replaced him as commander. In April 1943, the 1st SAS was reorganised into the
Special Raiding Squadron under Mayne's command and the
Special Boat Section was placed under the command of
George Jellicoe. The Special Raiding Squadron fought in Sicily and Italy along with the 2nd SAS, which had been formed in North Africa in 1943 in part by the renaming of the
Small Scale Raiding Force under the command of
Bill Stirling (brother of David). The Special Boat Squadron fought in the
Aegean Islands and
Dodecanese until the end of the war. In 1944 the
SAS Brigade was formed. The unit was formed from: and carried out operations supporting the Allied advance through France (Operations
Houndsworth,
Bulbasket,
Loyton,
Kipling and
Wallace-Hardy), Belgium, the Netherlands (
Operation Pegasus), and eventually into Germany (
Operation Archway and
Operation Howard). As a result of Hitler's issuing of the
Commando Order on 18 October 1942, the members of the unit faced the additional danger that they would be summarily executed if captured by the Germans. In July 1944, following Operation Bulbasket, 34 captured SAS commandos were indeed summarily executed by the Germans; in October 1944, in the aftermath of Operation Loyton, another 31 captured SAS commandos were summarily executed by the Germans. The last original member of the Special Air Service and the last survivor of the Long Range Desert Group,
Mike Sadler, died on 4 January 2024, at the age of 103.
Post-war At the end of the war the
British government saw no further need for the force and disbanded it on 8 October 1945. Ultimately, the
Artists Rifles, raised in 1860 and headquartered at Dukes Road, Euston, took on the SAS mantle as 21st SAS Regiment (V) on 1 January 1947.
Malayan Scouts In 1950, a 21 SAS squadron was raised to fight in the
Korean War. After three months of training in Britain, it was informed that the squadron would no longer be required in Korea and so it instead volunteered to fight in the
Malayan Emergency. who was forming a new unit called the
Malayan Scouts (SAS). Calvert had already formed one squadron from 100 volunteers in the Far East, which became A Squadron; the 21 SAS squadron then became B Squadron; and after a recruitment visit to
Rhodesia by Calvert,
C Squadron was formed from 100 Rhodesian volunteers. The Rhodesians returned home after three years' service and were replaced by a New Zealand squadron. By this time the need for a regular army SAS regiment had been recognised; the 22 SAS Regiment was formally added to the army list in 1952 and has been based at
Hereford since 1960. In 1959 the third regiment, the 23 SAS Regiment, was formed by renaming the Reserve Reconnaissance Unit, which had succeeded
MI9 and whose members were experts in
escape and evasion. They returned to Oman in operations against Communist-backed rebels in the
Dhofar Rebellion including the
Battle of Mirbat. They have also taken part in operations in the
Aden Emergency,
Northern Ireland, and
Gambia. SAS were involved throughout
Britain's covert involvement in the
Soviet–Afghan War; they acted through private military contractor
Keenie Meenie Services (or KMS Ltd), training the Afghan
Mujaheddin in weapons, tactics and using explosives. They trained the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan and sent them to be trained in
Pakistan, Oman and parts of the UK. During the
Falklands War B squadron were prepared for
Operation Mikado before it was subsequently cancelled while D and G squadrons were deployed and participated in the
raid on Pebble Island.
Operation Flavius was a controversial operation in
Gibraltar against the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). They were involved in the
Kosovo War helping
KLA guerillas behind Serbian lines. According to Albanian sources one SAS sergeant was killed by Serbian special forces. The
Gulf War, in which A, B and D squadrons deployed, was the largest SAS mobilisation since the Second World War, also notable for the failure of the
Bravo Two Zero mission. In
Sierra Leone it took part in
Operation Barras, a hostage rescue operation, to extract members of the
Royal Irish Regiment. The regiment took part in the
Iraq War, notably carrying out operations in Iraq before the
2003 invasion. Following the invasion, it formed part of
Task Force Black/Knight to combat the
post invasion insurgency; in late 2005/early 2006, the SAS were integrated into
JSOC and focused its counterinsurgency efforts on combating
al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Sunni insurgency alongside
Delta Force. The counter-insurgency was successful, and the UKSF mission in Iraq ended in May 2009. Overall, more than 3,500 terrorists were "taken off the streets" of Baghdad by 22 SAS. Various British newspapers have speculated on SAS involvement in
Operation Ellamy and the
2011 Libyan civil war. The
Daily Telegraph reports that "defence sources have confirmed that the SAS has been in Libya for several weeks, and played a key role in coordinating the fall of Tripoli." While
The Guardian reports "They have been acting as
forward air controllersdirecting pilots to targetsand communicating with NATO operational commanders. They have also been advising rebels on tactics." Members of the Special Air Service were deployed to Northern Iraq in late August 2014, and according to former SIS chief
Richard Barrett, would also be
sent to Syria, tasked with trying to track down the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group that the press labelled
the Beatles. In 2024 it was acknowledged that five SAS members had been arrested by the
Royal Military Police on suspicion of committing war crimes in Syria, though details have not been disclosed. Since the 1990s SAS officers have risen to senior appointments in the British Armed Forces. General
Peter de la Billière was the
commander in chief of the British forces in the 1990 Gulf War. General
Michael Rose became commander of the
United Nations Protection Force in
Bosnia in 1994. In 1997 General
Charles Guthrie became
Chief of the Defence Staff the head of the British armed forces.
Lieutenant-General Cedric Delves was appointed commander of the Field Army and deputy commander in chief NATO Regional Headquarters
Allied Forces North in 2002–2003.
21 and 23 SAS For much of the Cold War, the role of
21 SAS and
23 SAS was to provide stay-behind parties in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion of western Europe, forming together I Corps' Corps Patrol Unit. In the case of an invasion, this Special Air Service Group would have let themselves be bypassed and remained behind in order to collect intelligence behind Warsaw Pact lines, conduct target acquisition, and thus try to slow the enemy's advance. In early 2003, a squadron of about 60 soldiers from 21 SAS and 23 SAS, were deployed to Afghanistan. In 2005, for the first time since the Malayan Emergency a whole Reserve squadron deployed from one of the regiments to Afghanistan to conduct reconnaissance of
Helmand province in preparation for the establishment of a
Task Force based around
16 Air Assault Brigade.
Influence on other special forces Following the post-war reconstitution of the Special Air Service, other countries in the
Commonwealth recognised their need for similar units. The
Canadian Special Air Service Company was formed in 1947, being disbanded in 1949. The
New Zealand Special Air Service squadron was formed in June 1955 to serve with the British SAS in Malaya, which became a full regiment in 2011. Australia formed the 1st SAS Company in July 1957, which became a full regiment of the
Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) in 1964. On its return from Malaya, the C (Rhodesian) Squadron formed the basis for creation of the
Rhodesian Special Air Service in 1961. It retained the name "C Squadron (Rhodesian) Special Air Service" within the
Rhodesian Security Forces until 1978, when it became 1 (Rhodesian) Special Air Service Regiment. Non-Commonwealth countries have also formed units based on the SAS. The Belgian Army's
Special Forces Group, which wears the same capbadge as the British SAS, traces its ancestry partly from the
5th Special Air Service of the Second World War. The French
1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (1er RPIMa) can trace its origins to the Second World War 3rd and 4th SAS, adopting its "who dares wins" motto. The American unit,
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, was formed by Colonel
Charles Alvin Beckwith, who served with 22 SAS as an
exchange officer, and recognised the need for a similar type of unit in the
United States Army. The Israeli
Sayeret Matkal and
Shaldag units have also been modelled after the SAS, sharing its motto.
Ireland's
Army Ranger Wing (ARW) also trains with the SAS. The
Philippine National Police's
Special Action Force was formed along the lines of the SAS. The former Royal Afghan Army's 666th Commando Brigade was formed by Colonel Rahmatullah Safi in the 1970s after he received his training with the SAS before it was disbanded through purges after the coups in 1973 and 1978. ==Organisation==